Pakistan-based terror groups threat to region: US

Washington: The US State Department said that the Haqqani network and other terror groups that operate inside Pakistan and along the Afghan border were a continued security threat to the entire South Asian region and beyond.

“We all recognise the continued security threat that is posed by the Haqqani network and by other terrorist groups that operate inside Pakistan and along the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan,” Dawn online reported on Thursday quoting spokesman John Kirby as saying at a news briefing.

“The Pentagon is obviously well aware of that, as we are here, and it’s a conversation that we continue to have and will continue to have with our partners in the region. I’m not aware that there’s any dissonance here in terms of the way we’re seeing it,” said the US official.

Kirby said the US had held “a constant conversation” with its Pakistani partners about the threat posed by the Haqqani and other extremist groups “there in the region and certainly operating inside Pakistan”.

And “we make these decisions routinely and they’re based on active, fluid, dynamic conversations that we have with Pakistani leaders,” he added.

“I don’t know of any difference. I think the United States government is viewing this very much all in the same light,” Dawn online quoted Kirby as saying.

Kirby said that Secretary John Kerry has held several conversations with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Chief of Army Staff General Raheel Sharif over this issue.

At an earlier briefing at the Pentagon, India’s Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar described the Indian narrative of the current trouble in the Kashmir Valley, claiming that it was primarily because of Pakistan’s use of “terrorist proxies”, an allegation Islamabad has rejected.

Mr Carter did not contest the Indian narrative, saying that Pakistan-based terrorist groups had targeted both Indian civilians and military.

“Terrorism is one of the many missions on which we cooperate…We oppose terrorism affecting anyone and us. That’s certainly true with respect to terrorist acts perpetrated against the Indian people, and also I should mention the Indian military,” he said.

Defence Secretary Ash Carter did not contest the Indian narrative, saying that Pakistan-based terrorist groups had targeted both Indian civilians and military.